Method and apparatus for beam management for mobility

ABSTRACT

A method for operating a user equipment (UE) comprises receiving configuration information on a set of transmission configuration indicator (TCI) states, receiving a TCI state indication associated with downlink (DL) transmissions in a plurality of downlink (DL) time slots, decoding the TCI state indication, and applying the TCI state indication to a reception of the DL transmissions in the plurality of DL time slots.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS AND CLAIM OF PRIORITY

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.17/100,657, filed on Nov. 20, 2020, which claims priority to U.S.Provisional Patent Application No. 62/939,971 filed on Nov. 25, 2019.The content of the above-identified patent document is incorporatedherein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates generally to wireless communicationsystems and more specifically for beam management for mobility.

BACKGROUND

Wireless communication has been one of the most successful innovationsin modern history. The demand of wireless data traffic is rapidlyincreasing due to the growing popularity among consumers and businessesof smart phones and other mobile data devices, such as tablets, “notepad” computers, net books, eBook readers, and machine type of devices.To meet the high growth in mobile data traffic and support newapplications and deployments, improvements in radio interface efficiencyand coverage is of paramount importance.

A mobile device or user equipment (UE) can measure the quality of thedownlink channel and report this quality to a base station so that adetermination can be made regarding whether or not various parametersshould be adjusted during communication with the mobile device. Existingchannel quality reporting processes in wireless communications systemsdo not sufficiently accommodate reporting of channel state informationassociated with large, two-dimensional array transmit antennas or, ingeneral, antenna array geometry which accommodates a large number ofantenna elements.

SUMMARY

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide methods and apparatuses toenable downlink and uplink multi-beam operation in a wirelesscommunication system.

In one embodiment, a UE is provided. The UE comprises a transceiverconfigured to receive configuration information on a set of transmissionconfiguration indicator (TCI) states, and receive a TCI state indicationassociated with downlink (DL) transmissions in a plurality of downlink(DL) time slots. The UE further includes a processor coupled to thetransceiver. The processor is configured to decode the TCI stateindication, and apply the TCI state indication to a reception of the DLtransmissions in the plurality of DL time slots.

In another embodiment, a BS in a wireless communication system isprovided. The BS includes a processor configured to generateconfiguration information on a set of transmission configurationindicator (TCI) states, and generate a TCI state indication associatedwith downlink (DL) transmissions in a plurality of downlink (DL) timeslots. The BS further includes a transceiver coupled to the processor.The transceiver is configured to transmit the configuration information,and transmit the TCI state indication.

In yet another embodiment, a method for operating a UE is provided. Themethod comprises receiving configuration information on a set oftransmission configuration indicator (TCI) states, receiving a TCI stateindication associated with downlink (DL) transmissions in a plurality ofdownlink (DL) time slots, decoding the TCI state indication, andapplying the TCI state indication to a reception of the DL transmissionsin the plurality of DL time slots.

Other technical features may be readily apparent to one skilled in theart from the following figures, descriptions, and claims.

Before undertaking the DETAILED DESCRIPTION below, it may beadvantageous to set forth definitions of certain words and phrases usedthroughout this patent document. The term “couple” and its derivativesrefer to any direct or indirect communication between two or moreelements, whether or not those elements are in physical contact with oneanother. The terms “transmit,” “receive,” and “communicate,” as well asderivatives thereof, encompass both direct and indirect communication.The terms “include” and “comprise,” as well as derivatives thereof, meaninclusion without limitation. The term “or” is inclusive, meaningand/or. The phrase “associated with,” as well as derivatives thereof,means to include, be included within, interconnect with, contain, becontained within, connect to or with, couple to or with, be communicablewith, cooperate with, interleave, juxtapose, be proximate to, be boundto or with, have, have a property of, have a relationship to or with, orthe like. The term “controller” means any device, system or part thereofthat controls at least one operation. Such a controller may beimplemented in hardware or a combination of hardware and software and/orfirmware. The functionality associated with any particular controllermay be centralized or distributed, whether locally or remotely. Thephrase “at least one of,” when used with a list of items, means thatdifferent combinations of one or more of the listed items may be used,and only one item in the list may be needed. For example, “at least oneof: A, B, and C” includes any of the following combinations: A, B, C, Aand B, A and C, B and C, and A and B and C.

Moreover, various functions described below can be implemented orsupported by one or more computer programs, each of which is formed fromcomputer readable program code and embodied in a computer readablemedium. The terms “application” and “program” refer to one or morecomputer programs, software components, sets of instructions,procedures, functions, objects, classes, instances, related data, or aportion thereof adapted for implementation in a suitable computerreadable program code. The phrase “computer readable program code”includes any type of computer code, including source code, object code,and executable code. The phrase “computer readable medium” includes anytype of medium capable of being accessed by a computer, such as readonly memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), a hard disk drive, acompact disc (CD), a digital video disc (DVD), or any other type ofmemory. A “non-transitory” computer readable medium excludes wired,wireless, optical, or other communication links that transporttransitory electrical or other signals. A non-transitory computerreadable medium includes media where data can be permanently stored andmedia where data can be stored and later overwritten, such as arewritable optical disc or an erasable memory device.

Definitions for other certain words and phrases are provided throughoutthis patent document. Those of ordinary skill in the art shouldunderstand that in many if not most instances, such definitions apply toprior as well as future uses of such defined words and phrases.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a more complete understanding of the present disclosure and itsadvantages, reference is now made to the following description taken inconjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like referencenumerals represent like parts:

FIG. 1 illustrates an example wireless network according to embodimentsof the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 illustrates an example gNB according to embodiments of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 3 illustrates an example UE according to embodiments of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 4A illustrates a high-level diagram of an orthogonal frequencydivision multiple access transmit path according to embodiments of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 4B illustrates a high-level diagram of an orthogonal frequencydivision multiple access receive path according to embodiments of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 5 illustrates a transmitter block diagram for a PDSCH in a subframeaccording to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 illustrates a receiver block diagram for a PDSCH in a subframeaccording to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 illustrates a transmitter block diagram for a PUSCH in a subframeaccording to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 8 illustrates a receiver block diagram for a PUSCH in a subframeaccording to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 9 illustrates an example antenna blocks according to embodiments ofthe present disclosure;

FIG. 10 illustrates an uplink multi-beam operation according toembodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 11 illustrates an uplink multi-beam operation according toembodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 12 illustrates a downlink multi-beam operation according toembodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 13 illustrates examples of TCI states according to embodiments ofthe present disclosure;

FIG. 14 illustrates beam indication mechanisms according to embodimentsof the present disclosure;

FIG. 15 illustrates beam indication mechanisms according to embodimentsof the present disclosure;

FIG. 16 illustrates a flow chart of a method for operating a userequipment (UE) according to embodiments of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 17 illustrates a flow chart of another method as may be performedby a BS, according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIGS. 1 through FIG. 17 , discussed below, and the various embodimentsused to describe the principles of the present disclosure in this patentdocument are by way of illustration only and should not be construed inany way to limit the scope of the disclosure. Those skilled in the artwill understand that the principles of the present disclosure may beimplemented in any suitably arranged system or device.

The following documents and standards descriptions are herebyincorporated by reference into the present disclosure as if fully setforth herein: 3GPP TS 36.211 v16.2.0, “E-UTRA, Physical channels andmodulation” (herein “REF 1”); 3GPP TS 36.212 v16.2.0, “E-UTRA,Multiplexing and Channel coding” (herein “REF 2”); 3GPP TS 36.213v16.2.0, “E-UTRA, Physical Layer Procedures” (herein “REF 3”); 3GPP TS36.321 v16.2.0, “E-UTRA, Medium Access Control (MAC) protocolspecification” (herein “REF 4”); 3GPP TS 36.331 v16.2.0, “E-UTRA, RadioResource Control (RRC) protocol specification” (herein “REF 5”); 3GPP TR22.891 v14.2.0 (herein “REF 6”); 3GPP TS 38.212 v16.2.0, “E-UTRA, NR,Multiplexing and channel coding” (herein “REF 7”); 3GPP TS 38.214v16.2.0, “E-UTRA, NR, Physical layer procedures for data” (herein “REF8”); and 3GPP TS 38.213 v16.2.0, “E-UTRA, NR, Physical Layer Proceduresfor control” (herein “REF 9”).

Aspects, features, and advantages of the disclosure are readily apparentfrom the following detailed description, simply by illustrating a numberof particular embodiments and implementations, including the best modecontemplated for carrying out the disclosure. The disclosure is alsocapable of other and different embodiments, and its several details canbe modified in various obvious respects, all without departing from thespirit and scope of the disclosure. Accordingly, the drawings anddescription are to be regarded as illustrative in nature, and not asrestrictive. The disclosure is illustrated by way of example, and not byway of limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings.

In the following, for brevity, both FDD and TDD are considered as theduplex method for both DL and UL signaling.

Although exemplary descriptions and embodiments to follow assumeorthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) or orthogonalfrequency division multiple access (OFDMA), the present disclosure canbe extended to other OFDM-based transmission waveforms or multipleaccess schemes such as filtered OFDM (F-OFDM).

To meet the demand for wireless data traffic having increased sincedeployment of 4G communication systems, efforts have been made todevelop an improved 5G or pre-5G communication system. Therefore, the 5Gor pre-5G communication system is also called a “beyond 4G network” or a“post LTE system.”

The 5G communication system is considered to be implemented in higherfrequency (mmWave) bands, e.g., 60 GHz bands, so as to accomplish higherdata rates. To decrease propagation loss of the radio waves and increasethe transmission coverage, the beamforming, massive multiple-inputmultiple-output (MIMO), full dimensional MIMO (FD-MIMO), array antenna,an analog beam forming, large scale antenna techniques and the like arediscussed in 5G communication systems.

In addition, in 5G communication systems, development for system networkimprovement is under way based on advanced small cells, cloud radioaccess networks (RANs), ultra-dense networks, device-to-device (D2D)communication, wireless backhaul communication, moving network,cooperative communication, coordinated multi-points (CoMP) transmissionand reception, interference mitigation and cancellation and the like.

The discussion of 5G systems and frequency bands associated therewith isfor reference as certain embodiments of the present disclosure may beimplemented in 5G systems. However, the present disclosure is notlimited to 5G systems or the frequency bands associated therewith, andembodiments of the present disclosure may be utilized in connection withany frequency band.

FIGS. 1-4B below describe various embodiments implemented in wirelesscommunications systems and with the use of orthogonal frequency divisionmultiplexing (OFDM) or orthogonal frequency division multiple access(OFDMA) communication techniques. The descriptions of FIGS. 1-3 are notmeant to imply physical or architectural limitations to the manner inwhich different embodiments may be implemented. Different embodiments ofthe present disclosure may be implemented in any suitably-arrangedcommunications system. The present disclosure covers several componentswhich can be used in conjunction or in combination with one another, orcan operate as standalone schemes.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example wireless network according to embodimentsof the present disclosure. The embodiment of the wireless network shownin FIG. 1 is for illustration only. Other embodiments of the wirelessnetwork 10 could be used without departing from the scope of thisdisclosure.

As shown in FIG. 1 , the wireless network includes a gNB 101, a gNB 102,and a gNB 103. The gNB 101 communicates with the gNB 102 and the gNB103. The gNB 101 also communicates with at least one network 130, suchas the Internet, a proprietary Internet Protocol (IP) network, or otherdata network.

The gNB 102 provides wireless broadband access to the network 130 for afirst plurality of user equipments (UEs) within a coverage area 120 ofthe gNB 102. The first plurality of UEs includes a UE 111, which may belocated in a small business; a UE 112, which may be located in anenterprise (E); a UE 113, which may be located in a WiFi hotspot (HS); aUE 114, which may be located in a first residence (R); a UE 115, whichmay be located in a second residence (R); and a UE 116, which may be amobile device (M), such as a cell phone, a wireless laptop, a wirelessPDA, or the like. The gNB 103 provides wireless broadband access to thenetwork 130 for a second plurality of UEs within a coverage area 125 ofthe gNB 103. The second plurality of UEs includes the UE 115 and the UE116. In some embodiments, one or more of the gNBs 101-103 maycommunicate with each other and with the UEs 111-116 using 5G, LTE,LTE-A, WiMAX, WiFi, or other wireless communication techniques.

Depending on the network type, the term “base station” or “BS” can referto any component (or collection of components) configured to providewireless access to a network, such as transmit point (TP),transmit-receive point (TRP), an enhanced base station (eNodeB or eNB),a 5G base station (gNB), a macrocell, a femtocell, a WiFi access point(AP), or other wirelessly enabled devices. Base stations may providewireless access in accordance with one or more wireless communicationprotocols, e.g., 5G 3GPP new radio interface/access (NR), long termevolution (LTE), LTE advanced (LTE-A), high speed packet access (HSPA),Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, etc. For the sake of convenience, the terms “BS”and “TRP” are used interchangeably in this patent document to refer tonetwork infrastructure components that provide wireless access to remoteterminals. Also, depending on the network type, the term “userequipment” or “UE” can refer to any component such as “mobile station,”“subscriber station,” “remote terminal,” “wireless terminal,” “receivepoint,” or “user device.” For the sake of convenience, the terms “userequipment” and “UE” are used in this patent document to refer to remotewireless equipment that wirelessly accesses a BS, whether the UE is amobile device (such as a mobile telephone or smartphone) or is normallyconsidered a stationary device (such as a desktop computer or vendingmachine).

Dotted lines show the approximate extents of the coverage areas 120 and125, which are shown as approximately circular for the purposes ofillustration and explanation only. It should be clearly understood thatthe coverage areas associated with gNBs, such as the coverage areas 120and 125, may have other shapes, including irregular shapes, dependingupon the configuration of the gNBs and variations in the radioenvironment associated with natural and man-made obstructions.

As described in more detail below, one or more of the UEs 111-116include circuitry, programing, or a combination thereof, for receivingconfiguration information on a set of transmission configurationindicator (TCI) states, receiving a TCI state indication associated withdownlink (DL) transmissions in a plurality of downlink (DL) time slots,decoding the TCI state information, and applying the TCI stateindication to a reception of the DL transmissions in the plurality of DLtime slots, and one or more of the gNBs 101-103 includes circuitry,programing, or a combination thereof, for generating configurationinformation on a set of transmission configuration indicator (TCI)states, generating a TCI state indication associated with a downlink(DL) transmission in a plurality of downlink (DL) time slots,transmitting the configuration information, and transmitting the TCIstate indication.

Although FIG. 1 illustrates one example of a wireless network, variouschanges may be made to FIG. 1 . For example, the wireless network couldinclude any number of gNBs and any number of UEs in any suitablearrangement. Also, the gNB 101 could communicate directly with anynumber of UEs and provide those UEs with wireless broadband access tothe network 130. Similarly, each gNB 102-103 could communicate directlywith the network 130 and provide UEs with direct wireless broadbandaccess to the network 130. Further, the gNBs 101, 102, and/or 103 couldprovide access to other or additional external networks, such asexternal telephone networks or other types of data networks.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example gNB 102 according to embodiments of thepresent disclosure. The embodiment of the gNB 102 illustrated in FIG. 2is for illustration only, and the gNBs 101 and 103 of FIG. 1 could havethe same or similar configuration. However, gNBs come in a wide varietyof configurations, and FIG. 2 does not limit the scope of thisdisclosure to any particular implementation of a gNB.

As shown in FIG. 2 , the gNB 102 includes multiple antennas 205 a -205 n, multiple RF transceivers 210 a -210 n , transmit (TX) processingcircuitry 215, and receive (RX) processing circuitry 220. The gNB 102also includes a controller/processor 225, a memory 230, and a backhaulor network interface 235.

The RF transceivers 210 a -210 n receive, from the antennas 205 a -205 n, incoming RF signals, such as signals transmitted by UEs in the network100. The RF transceivers 210 a -210 n down-convert the incoming RFsignals to generate IF or baseband signals. The IF or baseband signalsare sent to the RX processing circuitry 220, which generates processedbaseband signals by filtering, decoding, and/or digitizing the basebandor IF signals. The RX processing circuitry 220 transmits the processedbaseband signals to the controller/processor 225 for further processing.

The TX processing circuitry 215 receives analog or digital data (such asvoice data, web data, e-mail, or interactive video game data) from thecontroller/processor 225. The TX processing circuitry 215 encodes,multiplexes, and/or digitizes the outgoing baseband data to generateprocessed baseband or IF signals. The RF transceivers 210 a -210 nreceive the outgoing processed baseband or IF signals from the TXprocessing circuitry 215 and up-converts the baseband or IF signals toRF signals that are transmitted via the antennas 205 a -205 n.

The controller/processor 225 can include one or more processors or otherprocessing devices that control the overall operation of the gNB 102.For example, the controller/processor 225 could control the reception offorward channel signals and the transmission of reverse channel signalsby the RF transceivers 210 a -210 n , the RX processing circuitry 220,and the TX processing circuitry 215 in accordance with well-knownprinciples. The controller/processor 225 could support additionalfunctions as well, such as more advanced wireless communicationfunctions.

For instance, the controller/processor 225 could support beam forming ordirectional routing operations in which outgoing signals from multipleantennas 205 a -205 n are weighted differently to effectively steer theoutgoing signals in a desired direction. Any of a wide variety of otherfunctions could be supported in the gNB 102 by the controller/processor225.

The controller/processor 225 is also capable of executing programs andother processes resident in the memory 230, such as an OS. Thecontroller/processor 225 can move data into or out of the memory 230 asrequired by an executing process.

The controller/processor 225 is also coupled to the backhaul or networkinterface 235. The backhaul or network interface 235 allows the gNB 102to communicate with other devices or systems over a backhaul connectionor over a network. The interface 235 could support communications overany suitable wired or wireless connection(s). For example, when the gNB102 is implemented as part of a cellular communication system (such asone supporting 5G, LTE, or LTE-A), the interface 235 could allow the gNB102 to communicate with other gNBs over a wired or wireless backhaulconnection. When the gNB 102 is implemented as an access point, theinterface 235 could allow the gNB 102 to communicate over a wired orwireless local area network or over a wired or wireless connection to alarger network (such as the Internet). The interface 235 includes anysuitable structure supporting communications over a wired or wirelessconnection, such as an Ethernet or RF transceiver.

The memory 230 is coupled to the controller/processor 225. Part of thememory 230 could include a RAM, and another part of the memory 230 couldinclude a Flash memory or other ROM.

Although FIG. 2 illustrates one example of gNB 102, various changes maybe made to FIG. 2 . For example, the gNB 102 could include any number ofeach component shown in FIG. 2 . As a particular example, an accesspoint could include a number of interfaces 235, and thecontroller/processor 225 could support routing functions to route databetween different network addresses. As another particular example,while shown as including a single instance of TX processing circuitry215 and a single instance of RX processing circuitry 220, the gNB 102could include multiple instances of each (such as one per RFtransceiver). Also, various components in FIG. 2 could be combined,further subdivided, or omitted and additional components could be addedaccording to particular needs.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example UE 116 according to embodiments of thepresent disclosure. The embodiment of the UE 116 illustrated in FIG. 3is for illustration only, and the UEs 111-115 of FIG. 1 could have thesame or similar configuration. However, UEs come in a wide variety ofconfigurations, and FIG. 3 does not limit the scope of this disclosureto any particular implementation of a UE.

As shown in FIG. 3 , the UE 116 includes an antenna 305, a radiofrequency (RF) transceiver 310, TX processing circuitry 315, amicrophone 320, and receive (RX) processing circuitry 325. The UE 116also includes a speaker 330, a processor 340, an input/output (I/O)interface (IF) 345, a touchscreen 350, a display 355, and a memory 360.The memory 360 includes an operating system (OS) 361 and one or moreapplications 362.

The RF transceiver 310 receives, from the antenna 305, an incoming RFsignal transmitted by a gNB of the network 100. The RF transceiver 310down-converts the incoming RF signal to generate an intermediatefrequency (IF) or baseband signal. The IF or baseband signal is sent tothe RX processing circuitry 325, which generates a processed basebandsignal by filtering, decoding, and/or digitizing the baseband or IFsignal. The RX processing circuitry 325 transmits the processed basebandsignal to the speaker 330 (such as for voice data) or to the processor340 for further processing (such as for web browsing data).

The TX processing circuitry 315 receives analog or digital voice datafrom the microphone 320 or other outgoing baseband data (such as webdata, e-mail, or interactive video game data) from the processor 340.The TX processing circuitry 315 encodes, multiplexes, and/or digitizesthe outgoing baseband data to generate a processed baseband or IFsignal. The RF transceiver 310 receives the outgoing processed basebandor IF signal from the TX processing circuitry 315 and up-converts thebaseband or IF signal to an RF signal that is transmitted via theantenna 305.

The processor 340 can include one or more processors or other processingdevices and execute the OS 361 stored in the memory 360 in order tocontrol the overall operation of the UE 116. For example, the processor340 could control the reception of forward channel signals and thetransmission of reverse channel signals by the RF transceiver 310, theRX processing circuitry 325, and the TX processing circuitry 315 inaccordance with well-known principles. In some embodiments, theprocessor 340 includes at least one microprocessor or microcontroller.

The processor 340 is also capable of executing other processes andprograms resident in the memory 360, such as processes for receivingconfiguration information on a set of transmission configurationindicator (TCI) states, receiving a TCI state indication associated withdownlink (DL) transmissions in a plurality of downlink (DL) time slots,decoding the TCI state information, and applying the TCI stateindication to a reception of the DL transmissions in the plurality of DLtime slots. The processor 340 can move data into or out of the memory360 as required by an executing process. In some embodiments, theprocessor 340 is configured to execute the applications 362 based on theOS 361 or in response to signals received from gNBs or an operator. Theprocessor 340 is also coupled to the I/O interface 345, which providesthe UE 116 with the ability to connect to other devices, such as laptopcomputers and handheld computers. The I/O interface 345 is thecommunication path between these accessories and the processor 340.

The processor 340 is also coupled to the touchscreen 350 and the display355. The operator of the UE 116 can use the touchscreen 350 to enterdata into the UE 116. The display 355 may be a liquid crystal display,light emitting diode display, or other display capable of rendering textand/or at least limited graphics, such as from web sites.

The memory 360 is coupled to the processor 340. Part of the memory 360could include a random access memory (RAM), and another part of thememory 360 could include a Flash memory or other read-only memory (ROM).

Although FIG. 3 illustrates one example of UE 116, various changes maybe made to FIG. 3 . For example, various components in FIG. 3 could becombined, further subdivided, or omitted and additional components couldbe added according to particular needs. As a particular example, theprocessor 340 could be divided into multiple processors, such as one ormore central processing units (CPUs) and one or more graphics processingunits (GPUs). Also, while FIG. 3 illustrates the UE 116 configured as amobile telephone or smartphone, UEs could be configured to operate asother types of mobile or stationary devices.

FIG. 4A is a high-level diagram of transmit path circuitry. For example,the transmit path circuitry may be used for an orthogonal frequencydivision multiple access (OFDMA) communication. FIG. 4B is a high-leveldiagram of receive path circuitry. For example, the receive pathcircuitry may be used for an orthogonal frequency division multipleaccess (OFDMA) communication. In FIGS. 4A and 4B, for downlinkcommunication, the transmit path circuitry may be implemented in a basestation (gNB) 102 or a relay station, and the receive path circuitry maybe implemented in a user equipment (e.g., user equipment 116 of FIG. 1). In other examples, for uplink communication, the receive pathcircuitry 450 may be implemented in a base station (e.g., gNB 102 ofFIG. 1 ) or a relay station, and the transmit path circuitry may beimplemented in a user equipment (e.g., user equipment 116 of FIG. 1 ).

Transmit path circuitry comprises channel coding and modulation block405, serial-to-parallel (S-to-P) block 410, Size N Inverse Fast FourierTransform (IFFT) block 415, parallel-to-serial (P-to-S) block 420, addcyclic prefix block 425, and up-converter (UC) 430. Receive pathcircuitry 450 comprises down-converter (DC) 455, remove cyclic prefixblock 460, serial-to-parallel (S-to-P) block 465, Size N Fast FourierTransform (FFT) block 470, parallel-to-serial (P-to-S) block 475, andchannel decoding and demodulation block 480.

At least some of the components in FIGS. 4A 400 and 4B 450 may beimplemented in software, while other components may be implemented byconfigurable hardware or a mixture of software and configurablehardware. In particular, it is noted that the FFT blocks and the IFFTblocks described in this disclosure document may be implemented asconfigurable software algorithms, where the value of Size N may bemodified according to the implementation.

Furthermore, although this disclosure is directed to an embodiment thatimplements the Fast Fourier Transform and the Inverse Fast FourierTransform, this is by way of illustration only and may not be construedto limit the scope of the disclosure. It may be appreciated that in analternate embodiment of the present disclosure, the Fast FourierTransform functions and the Inverse Fast Fourier Transform functions mayeasily be replaced by discrete Fourier transform (DFT) functions andinverse discrete Fourier transform (IDFT) functions, respectively. Itmay be appreciated that for DFT and IDFT functions, the value of the Nvariable may be any integer number (i.e., 1, 4, 3, 4, etc.), while forFFT and IFFT functions, the value of the N variable may be any integernumber that is a power of two (i.e., 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, etc.).

In transmit path circuitry 400, channel coding and modulation block 405receives a set of information bits, applies coding (e.g., LDPC coding)and modulates (e.g., quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) or quadratureamplitude modulation (QAM)) the input bits to produce a sequence offrequency-domain modulation symbols. Serial-to-parallel block 410converts (i.e., de-multiplexes) the serial modulated symbols to paralleldata to produce N parallel symbol streams where N is the IFFT/FFT sizeused in BS 102 and UE 116. Size N IFFT block 415 then performs an IFFToperation on the N parallel symbol streams to produce time-domain outputsignals. Parallel-to-serial block 420 converts (i.e., multiplexes) theparallel time-domain output symbols from Size N IFFT block 415 toproduce a serial time-domain signal. Add cyclic prefix block 425 theninserts a cyclic prefix to the time-domain signal. Finally, up-converter430 modulates (i.e., up-converts) the output of add cyclic prefix block425 to RF frequency for transmission via a wireless channel. The signalmay also be filtered at baseband before conversion to RF frequency.

The transmitted RF signal arrives at the UE 116 after passing throughthe wireless channel, and reverse operations to those at gNB 102 areperformed. Down-converter 455 down-converts the received signal tobaseband frequency, and remove cyclic prefix block 460 removes thecyclic prefix to produce the serial time-domain baseband signal.Serial-to-parallel block 465 converts the time-domain baseband signal toparallel time-domain signals. Size N FFT block 470 then performs an FFTalgorithm to produce N parallel frequency-domain signals.Parallel-to-serial block 475 converts the parallel frequency-domainsignals to a sequence of modulated data symbols. Channel decoding anddemodulation block 480 demodulates and then decodes the modulatedsymbols to recover the original input data stream.

Each of gNBs 101-103 may implement a transmit path that is analogous totransmitting in the downlink to user equipment 111-116 and may implementa receive path that is analogous to receiving in the uplink from userequipment 111-116. Similarly, each one of user equipment 111-116 mayimplement a transmit path corresponding to the architecture fortransmitting in the uplink to gNBs 101-103 and may implement a receivepath corresponding to the architecture for receiving in the downlinkfrom gNBs 101-103.

The 5G communication system use cases have been identified anddescribed. Those use cases can be roughly categorized into threedifferent groups. In one example, enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) isdetermined to do with high bits/sec requirement, with less stringentlatency and reliability requirements. In another example, ultra-reliableand low latency (URLL) is determined with less stringent bits/secrequirement. In yet another example, massive machine type communication(mMTC) is determined that a number of devices can be as many as 100,000to 1 million per km2, but the reliability/throughput/latency requirementcould be less stringent. This scenario may also involve power efficiencyrequirement as well, in that the battery consumption may be minimized aspossible.

A communication system includes a downlink (DL) that conveys signalsfrom transmission points such as base stations (BSs) or NodeBs to userequipments (UEs) and an Uplink (UL) that conveys signals from UEs toreception points such as NodeBs. A UE, also commonly referred to as aterminal or a mobile station, may be fixed or mobile and may be acellular phone, a personal computer device, or an automated device. AneNodeB, which is generally a fixed station, may also be referred to asan access point or other equivalent terminology. For LTE systems, aNodeB is often referred as an eNodeB.

In a communication system, such as LTE system, DL signals can includedata signals conveying information content, control signals conveying DLcontrol information (DCI), and reference signals (RS) that are alsoknown as pilot signals. An eNodeB transmits data information through aphysical DL shared channel (PDSCH). An eNodeB transmits DCI through aphysical DL control channel (PDCCH) or an Enhanced PDCCH (EPDCCH).

An eNodeB transmits acknowledgement information in response to datatransport block (TB) transmission from a UE in a physical hybrid ARQindicator channel (PHICH). An eNodeB transmits one or more of multipletypes of RS including a UE-common RS (CRS), a channel state informationRS (CSI-RS), or a demodulation RS (DMRS). A CRS is transmitted over a DLsystem bandwidth (BW) and can be used by UEs to obtain a channelestimate to demodulate data or control information or to performmeasurements. To reduce CRS overhead, an eNodeB may transmit a CSI-RSwith a smaller density in the time and/or frequency domain than a CRS.DMRS can be transmitted only in the BW of a respective PDSCH or EPDCCHand a UE can use the DMRS to demodulate data or control information in aPDSCH or an EPDCCH, respectively. A transmission time interval for DLchannels is referred to as a subframe and can have, for example,duration of 1 millisecond.

DL signals also include transmission of a logical channel that carriessystem control information. A BCCH is mapped to either a transportchannel referred to as a broadcast channel (BCH) when the DL signalsconvey a master information block (MIB) or to a DL shared channel(DL-SCH) when the DL signals convey a System Information Block (SIB).Most system information is included in different SIBs that aretransmitted using DL-SCH. A presence of system information on a DL-SCHin a subframe can be indicated by a transmission of a correspondingPDCCH conveying a codeword with a cyclic redundancy check (CRC)scrambled with system information RNTI (SI-RNTI). Alternatively,scheduling information for a SIB transmission can be provided in anearlier SIB and scheduling information for the first SIB (SIB-1) can beprovided by the MIB.

DL resource allocation is performed in a unit of subframe and a group ofphysical resource blocks (PRBs). A transmission BW includes frequencyresource units referred to as resource blocks (RBs). Each RB includes Ngsub-carriers, or resource elements (REs), such as 12 REs. A unit of oneRB over one subframe is referred to as a PRB. A UE can be allocatedM_(PDSCH) RBs for a total of M_(sc) ^(PDSCH)=M_(PDSCH)·N_(sc) ^(RB) REsfor the PDSCH transmission BW.

UL signals can include data signals conveying data information, controlsignals conveying UL control information (UCI), and UL RS. UL RSincludes DMRS and Sounding RS (SRS). A UE transmits DMRS only in a BW ofa respective PUSCH or PUCCH. An eNodeB can use a DMRS to demodulate datasignals or UCI signals. A UE transmits SRS to provide an eNodeB with anUL CSI. A UE transmits data information or UCI through a respectivephysical UL shared channel (PUSCH) or a Physical UL control channel(PUCCH). If a UE needs to transmit data information and UCI in a same ULsubframe, the UE may multiplex both in a PUSCH. UCI includes HybridAutomatic Repeat request acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) information,indicating correct (ACK) or incorrect (NACK) detection for a data TB ina PDSCH or absence of a PDCCH detection (DTX), scheduling request (SR)indicating whether a UE has data in the UE's buffer, rank indicator(RI), and channel state information (CSI) enabling an eNodeB to performlink adaptation for PDSCH transmissions to a UE. HARQ-ACK information isalso transmitted by a UE in response to a detection of a PDCCH/EPDCCHindicating a release of semi-persistently scheduled PDSCH.

An UL subframe includes two slots. Each slot includes N_(symb) ^(UL)symbols for transmitting data information, UCI, DMRS, or SRS. Afrequency resource unit of an UL system BW is a RB. A UE is allocatedN_(RB) RBs for a total of N_(RB)·N_(sc) ^(RB) REs for a transmission BW.For a PUCCH, N_(RB)=1. A last subframe symbol can be used to multiplexSRS transmissions from one or more UEs. A number of subframe symbolsthat are available for data/UCl/DMRS transmission isN_(symb)=2·(N_(symb) ^(UL)−1)−N_(SRS), where N_(SRS)=1 if a lastsubframe symbol is used to transmit SRS and N_(SRS)=0 otherwise.

FIG. 5 illustrates a transmitter block diagram 500 for a PDSCH in asubframe according to embodiments of the present disclosure. Theembodiment of the transmitter block diagram 500 illustrated in FIG. 5 isfor illustration only. One or more of the components illustrated in FIG.5 can be implemented in specialized circuitry configured to perform thenoted functions or one or more of the components can be implemented byone or more processors executing instructions to perform the notedfunctions. FIG. 5 does not limit the scope of this disclosure to anyparticular implementation of the transmitter block diagram 500.

As shown in FIG. 5 , information bits 510 are encoded by encoder 520,such as a turbo encoder, and modulated by modulator 530, for exampleusing quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) modulation. A serial toparallel (S/P) converter 540 generates M modulation symbols that aresubsequently provided to a mapper 550 to be mapped to REs selected by atransmission BW selection unit 555 for an assigned PDSCH transmissionBW, unit 560 applies an Inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT), theoutput is then serialized by a parallel to serial (P/S) converter 570 tocreate a time domain signal, filtering is applied by filter 580, and asignal transmitted 590. Additional functionalities, such as datascrambling, cyclic prefix insertion, time windowing, interleaving, andothers are well known in the art and are not shown for brevity.

FIG. 6 illustrates a receiver block diagram 600 for a PDSCH in asubframe according to embodiments of the present disclosure. Theembodiment of the diagram 600 illustrated in FIG. 6 is for illustrationonly. One or more of the components illustrated in FIG. 6 can beimplemented in specialized circuitry configured to perform the notedfunctions or one or more of the components can be implemented by one ormore processors executing instructions to perform the noted functions.FIG. 6 does not limit the scope of this disclosure to any particularimplementation of the diagram 600.

As shown in FIG. 6 , a received signal 610 is filtered by filter 620,REs 630 for an assigned reception BW are selected by BW selector 635,unit 640 applies a fast Fourier transform (FFT), and an output isserialized by a parallel-to-serial converter 650. Subsequently, ademodulator 660 coherently demodulates data symbols by applying achannel estimate obtained from a DMRS or a CRS (not shown), and adecoder 670, such as a turbo decoder, decodes the demodulated data toprovide an estimate of the information data bits 680. Additionalfunctionalities such as time-windowing, cyclic prefix removal,de-scrambling, channel estimation, and de-interleaving are not shown forbrevity.

FIG. 7 illustrates a transmitter block diagram 700 for a PUSCH in asubframe according to embodiments of the present disclosure. Theembodiment of the block diagram 700 illustrated in FIG. 7 is forillustration only. One or more of the components illustrated in FIG. 5can be implemented in specialized circuitry configured to perform thenoted functions or one or more of the components can be implemented byone or more processors executing instructions to perform the notedfunctions. FIG. 7 does not limit the scope of this disclosure to anyparticular implementation of the block diagram 700.

As shown in FIG. 7 , information data bits 710 are encoded by encoder720, such as a turbo encoder, and modulated by modulator 730. A discreteFourier transform (DFT) unit 740 applies a DFT on the modulated databits, REs 750 corresponding to an assigned PUSCH transmission BW areselected by transmission BW selection unit 755, unit 760 applies an IFFTand, after a cyclic prefix insertion (not shown), filtering is appliedby filter 770 and a signal transmitted 780.

FIG. 8 illustrates a receiver block diagram 800 for a PUSCH in asubframe according to embodiments of the present disclosure. Theembodiment of the block diagram 800 illustrated in FIG. 8 is forillustration only. One or more of the components illustrated in FIG. 8can be implemented in specialized circuitry configured to perform thenoted functions or one or more of the components can be implemented byone or more processors executing instructions to perform the notedfunctions. FIG. 8 does not limit the scope of this disclosure to anyparticular implementation of the block diagram 800.

As shown in FIG. 8 , a received signal 810 is filtered by filter 820.Subsequently, after a cyclic prefix is removed (not shown), unit 830applies a FFT, REs 840 corresponding to an assigned PUSCH reception BWare selected by a reception BW selector 845, unit 850 applies an inverseDFT (IDFT), a demodulator 860 coherently demodulates data symbols byapplying a channel estimate obtained from a DMRS (not shown), a decoder870, such as a turbo decoder, decodes the demodulated data to provide anestimate of the information data bits 880.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example antenna blocks 900 according toembodiments of the present disclosure. The embodiment of the antennablocks 900 illustrated in FIG. 9 is for illustration only. FIG. 9 doesnot limit the scope of this disclosure to any particular implementationof the antenna blocks 900.

The 3GPP LTE and NR (new radio access or interface) specificationssupport up to 32 CSI-RS antenna ports which enable an eNB to be equippedwith a large number of antenna elements (such as 64 or 128). In thiscase, a plurality of antenna elements is mapped onto one CSI-RS port.For next generation cellular systems such as 5G, the maximum number ofCSI-RS ports can either remain the same or increase. For mmWave bands,although the number of antenna elements can be larger for a given formfactor, the number of CSI-RS ports—which can correspond to the number ofdigitally precoded ports—tends to be limited due to hardware constraints(such as the feasibility to install a large number of ADCs/DACs atmmWave frequencies) as illustrated in FIG. 9 . In this case, one CSI-RSport is mapped onto a large number of antenna elements which can becontrolled by a bank of analog phase shifters 901. One CSI-RS port canthen correspond to one sub-array which produces a narrow analog beamthrough analog beamforming 905. This analog beam can be configured tosweep across a wider range of angles 920 by varying the phase shifterbank across symbols or subframes. The number of sub-arrays (equal to thenumber of RF chains) is the same as the number of CSI-RS portsN_(CSI-PORT). A digital beamforming unit 910 performs a linearcombination across N_(CSI-PORT) analog beams to further increaseprecoding gain. While analog beams are wideband (hence notfrequency-selective), digital precoding can be varied across frequencysub-bands or resource blocks. Receiver operation can be conceivedanalogously.

Because the above system utilizes multiple analog beams for transmissionand reception (wherein one or a small number of analog beams areselected out of a large number, for instance, after a trainingduration—to be performed from time to time), the term “multi-beamoperation” is used to refer to the overall system aspect. This includes,for the purpose of illustration, indicating the assigned DL or ULtransmit (TX) beam (also termed “beam indication”), measuring at leastone reference signal for calculating and performing beam reporting (alsotermed “beam measurement” and “beam reporting”, respectively), andreceiving a DL or UL transmission via a selection of a correspondingreceive (RX) beam.

The above system is also applicable to higher frequency bands suchas >52.6 GHz (also termed the FR4). In this case, the system can employonly analog beams. Due to the O2 absorption loss around 60 GHz frequency(−10 dB additional loss @100 m distance), larger number of and sharperanalog beams (hence larger number of radiators in the array) will beneeded to compensate for the additional path loss.

In 3GPP LTE and NR, network access and radio resource management (RRM)are enabled by physical layer synchronization signals and higher (MAC)layer procedures. In particular, a UE attempts to detect the presence ofsynchronization signals along with at least one cell ID for initialaccess. Once the UE is in the network and associated with a servingcell, the UE monitors several neighboring cells by attempting to detecttheir synchronization signals and/or measuring the associatedcell-specific RSs (for instance, by measuring their RSRPs). For nextgeneration cellular systems, efficient and unified radio resourceacquisition or tracking mechanism which works for various use cases(such as eMBB, URLLC, mMTC, each corresponding to a different coveragerequirement) and frequency bands (with different propagation losses) isdesirable. Most likely designed with a different network and radioresource paradigm, seamless and low-latency RRM is also desirable. Suchgoals pose at least the following problems in designing an access, radioresource, and mobility management framework.

First, since NR is likely to support even more diversified networktopology, the notion of cell can be redefined or replaced with anotherradio resource entity. As an example, for synchronous networks, one cellcan be associated with a plurality of TRPs (transmit-receive points)similar to a COMP (coordinated multipoint transmission) scenario in LTE.In this case, seamless mobility is a desirable feature. Second, whenlarge antenna arrays and beamforming are utilized, defining radioresource in terms of beams (although possibly termed differently) can bea natural approach. Given that numerous beamforming architectures can beutilized, an access, radio resource, and mobility management frameworkwhich accommodates various beamforming architectures (or, instead,agnostic to beamforming architecture) is desirable. For instance, theframework should be applicable for or agnostic to whether one beam isformed for one CSI-RS port (for instance, where a plurality of analogports are connected to one digital port, and a plurality of widelyseparated digital ports are utilized) or one beam is formed by aplurality of CSI-RS ports. In addition, the framework should beapplicable whether beam sweeping (as illustrated in FIG. 9 ) is used ornot. Third, different frequency bands and use cases impose differentcoverage limitations. For example, mmWave bands impose large propagationlosses. Therefore, some form of coverage enhancement scheme is needed.Several candidates include beam sweeping (cf. FIG. 9 ), repetition,diversity, and/or multi-TRP transmission. For mMTC where transmissionbandwidth is small, time-domain repetition is needed to ensuresufficient coverage.

A prerequisite to seamless access is significant reduction ofhigher-layer procedures for UEs which are already connected to thenetwork. For instance, the existence of cell boundaries (or in generalthe notion of cells) necessitates RRC (L3) reconfiguration as a UE movesfrom one cell to another (i.e., inter-cell mobility). For heterogeneousnetworks with closed subscriber groups, additional overhead associatedwith higher layer procedures may further tax the system. This can beachieved by relaxing the cell boundaries thereby creating a large“super-cell” wherein a large number of UEs can roam. In this case, highcapacity MIMO transmission (especially MU-MIMO) becomes more prevalent.While this presents an opportunity to increase system capacity (measuredin terms of the number of sustainable UEs), it requires a streamlinedMIMO design. This poses a challenge if applied in the current system.

Therefore, there is a need for an access, radio resource, and mobilitymanagement framework which facilitates seamless access by reducing theamount of higher layer procedures. In addition, there is also a need fora streamlined MIMO design that facilitates high capacity MIMOtransmission.

In NR, multi-beam operation is designed primarily for singletransmit-receive point (TRP) and single antenna panel. Therefore, thespecification supports beam indication for one TX beam wherein a TX beamis associated with a reference RS. For DL beam indication andmeasurement, the reference RS can be NZP (non-zero power) CSI-RS and/orSSB (synchronization signal block, which includes primarysynchronization signal, secondary synchronization signal, and PBCH).Here, DL beam indication is done via the transmission configurationindicator (TCI) field in DL-related DCI which includes an index to one(and only one) assigned reference RS. A set of hypotheses or theso-called TCI states is configured via higher-layer (RRC) signaling and,when applicable, a subset of those TCI states is selected/activated viaMAC CE for the TCI field code points. For UL beam indication andmeasurement, the reference RS can be NZP CSI-RS, SSB, and/or SRS. Here,UL beam indication is done via the SRS resource indicator (SRI) field inUL-related DCI which is linked to one (and only one) reference RS. Thislinkage is configured via higher-layer signaling using theSpatialRelationlnfo RRC parameter. Essentially, only one TX beam isindicated to the UE.

In NR, beam management was designed to share the same framework as CSIacquisition. This, however, compromises the performance of beammanagement especially for FR2. This is because beam management operatesmainly with analog beams (characteristic of FR2) which paradigmaticallydiffer from CSI acquisition (designed with FR1 in mind). Consequently,NR beam management becomes cumbersome and is unlikely able to keep upwith more aggressive use cases which require large number of beams andfast beam switching (e.g., higher frequency bands, high mobility, and/orlarger number of narrower analog beams). In addition, NR was designed toaccommodate a number of unknown or rudimentary capabilities (e.g., UEsnot capable of beam correspondence). To be flexible, it results in anumber of options. This becomes burdensome to L1 control signaling andtherefore a number of reconfigurations are performed via RRC signaling(higher-layer configuration). While this avoids L1 control overhead, iteither results in high latency (if reconfiguration is performedsparsely) or imposes high usage of PDSCH (since RRC signaling consumesPDSCH resources).

In NR, the handover procedure to handle inter-cell mobility is similarto LTE, and relies heavily on RRC (and even higher layer)reconfigurations to update cell-specific parameters. Thesereconfigurations usually are slow, and incur large latency (up toseveral milliseconds). For high mobility UEs, this issue gets worse dueto the need for more frequency handovers, hence more frequency RRCreconfigurations.

For high mobility UEs in FR2, the two latency issues mentioned above,one with the hierarchical NW structure (with visible cell boundaries)and the other with the beam management, compound together and make thelatency issue much worse, and lead to frequent radio link failures(RLFs). Therefore, there is a need for solutions/mechanisms which canreduce RLFs for high mobility UEs in FR2. One such solution/mechanism,namely, beam management for mobility, is proposed in this disclosure.

In the present disclosure, the term “activation” describes an operationwherein a UE receives and decodes a signal from the network (or gNB)that signifies a starting point in time. The starting point can be apresent or a future slot/subframe or symbol—the exact location eitherimplicitly or explicitly indicated, or otherwise fixed or higher-layerconfigured. Upon successfully decoding the signal, the UE respondsaccordingly. The term “deactivation” describes an operation wherein a UEreceives and decodes a signal from the network (or gNB) that signifies astopping point in time. The stopping point can be a present or a futureslot/subframe or symbol—the exact location either implicitly orexplicitly indicated, or otherwise fixed or higher-layer configured.Upon successfully decoding the signal, the UE responds accordingly.

Terminology such as TCI, TCI states, SpatialRelationlnfo, target RS,reference RS, and other terms is used for illustrative purposes andtherefore not normative. Other terms that refer to the same functionscan also be used.

A “reference RS” corresponds to a set of characteristics of UL TX beamor DL RX beam, such as direction, precoding/beamforming, number ofports, etc. For instance, for UL, as the UE receives a reference RSindex/ID in an UL grant, the UE applies the known characteristics of thereference RS to the granted UL transmission. The reference RS can bereceived and measured by the UE (in this case, the reference RS is adownlink signal such as NZP CSI-RS and/or SSB) with the result of themeasurement used for calculating a beam report. As the NW/gNB receivesthe beam report, the NW can be better equipped with information toassign a particular UL TX beam or DL RX beam to the UE. Optionally, thereference RS can be transmitted by the UE (in this case, the referenceRS is a downlink signal such as SRS or DMRS). As the NW/gNB receives thereference RS, the NW/gNB can measure and calculate the neededinformation to assign a particular UL TX beam or DL RX beam to the UE.

The reference RS can be dynamically triggered by the NW/gNB (e.g., viaDCI in case of aperiodic RS), preconfigured with a certain time-domainbehavior (such as periodicity and offset, in case of periodic RS), or acombination of such pre-configuration and activation/deactivation (incase of semi-persistent RS).

The following embodiment is an example of DL multi-beam operation thatutilizes DL beam indication after the network (NW) receives sometransmission from the UE. In the first example embodiment, aperiodicCSI-RS is transmitted by the NW and measured by the UE. Althoughaperiodic RS is used in these two examples, periodic or semi-persistentRS can also be used.

For mmWave (or FR2) or higher frequency bands (such as >52.6 GHz or FR4)where multi-beam operation is especially relevant,transmission-reception process includes the receiver to select a receive(RX) beam for a given TX beam. For UL multi-beam operation, the gNBselects an UL RX beam for every UL TX beam (which corresponds to areference RS). Therefore, when UL RS (such as SRS and/or DMRS) is usedas reference RS, the NW/gNB triggers or configures the UE to transmitthe UL RS (which is associated with a selection of UL TX beam). The gNB,upon receiving and measuring the UL RS, selects an UL RX beam. As aresult, a TX-RX beam pair is derived. The NW/gNB can perform thisoperation for all the configured reference RS s (either per reference RSor “beam sweeping”) and determine all the TX-RX beam pairs associatedwith all the reference RSs configured to the UE. On the other hand, whenDL RS (such as CSI-RS and/or SSB) is used as reference RS (pertinentwhen DL-UL beam correspondence or reciprocity holds), the NW/gNBtransmit the RS to the UE (for UL and by reciprocity, this correspondsto an UL RX beam). In response, the UE measures the reference RS (and inthe process selects an UL TX beam) and reports the beam metricassociated with the quality of the reference RS. In this case, the UEdetermines the TX-RX beam pair for every configured (DL) reference RS.Therefore, although this knowledge is unavailable to the NW/gNB, theUE—upon receiving a reference RS (hence UL RX beam) indication from theNW/gNB—can select the UL TX beam from the knowledge on all the TX-RXbeam pairs.

In the present disclosure, the term “Resource Indicator”, alsoabbreviated as REI, is used to refer to an indicator of RS resource usedfor signal/channel and./or interference measurement. This term is usedfor illustrative purposes and hence can be substituted with any otherterm that refers to the same function. Examples of REI include theaforementioned CSI-RS resource indicator (CRI) and SSB resourceindicator (SSB-RI). Any other RS can also be used for signal/channeland/or interference measurement such as DMRS.

In one example illustrated in FIG. 10 , an UL multi-beam operation 1000is shown. The embodiment of the UL multi-beam operation 1000 illustratedin FIG. 10 is for illustration only. FIG. 10 does not limit the scope ofthis disclosure to any particular implementation of the UL multi-beamoperation 1000.

The UL multi-beam operation 1000 starts with the gNB/NW signaling to aUE an aperiodic CSI-RS (AP-CSI-RS) trigger or indication (step 1001).This trigger or indication can be included in a DCI (either UL-relatedor DL-related, either separately or jointly signaled with an aperiodicCSI request/trigger) and indicate transmission of AP-CSI-RS in a same(zero time offset) or later slot/sub-frame (>0 time offset). Uponreceiving the AP-CSI-RS transmitted by the gNB/NW (step 1002), the UEmeasures the AP-CSI-RS and, in turn, calculates and reports a “beammetric” (indicating quality of a particular TX beam hypothesis) (step1003). Examples of such beam reporting are CSI-RS resource indicator(CRI) or SSB resource indicator (SSB-RI) coupled with its associatedL1-RSRP/L1-RSRQ/L1-SINR/CQI.

Upon receiving the beam report from the UE, the gNB/NW can use the beamreport to select an UL TX beam for the UE and indicate the UL TX beamselection (step 1004) using the SRI field in the UL-related DCI (thatcarries the UL grant, such as DCI format 0_1 in NR). The SRI correspondsto a “target” SRS resource that is linked to a reference RS (in thiscase, an AP-CSI-RS) via SpatialRelationlnfo configuration. Uponsuccessfully decoding the UL-related DCI with the SRI, the UE performsUL transmission (such as data transmission on PUSCH) with the UL TX beamassociated with the SRI (step 1005).

In another example illustrated in FIG. 11 , an UL multi-beam operation1100 is shown. The embodiment of the UL multi-beam operation 1100illustrated in FIG. 11 is for illustration only. FIG. 11 does not limitthe scope of this disclosure to any particular implementation of the ULmulti-beam operation 1100.

The UL multi-beam operation 1100 starts with the gNB/NW signaling to aUE an aperiodic SRS (AP-SRS) trigger or request (step 1101). Thistrigger can be included in a DCI (either UL-related or DL-related). Uponreceiving and decoding the AP-SRS trigger, the UE transmits AP-SRS tothe gNB/NW (step 1102) so that the NW (or gNB) can measure the ULpropagation channel and select an UL TX beam for the UE. The gNB/NW canthen indicate the UL TX beam selection (step 1103) using the SRI fieldin the UL-related DCI (that carries the UL grant, such as DCI format 0_1in NR). The SRI corresponds to a “target” SRS resource that is linked toa reference RS (in this case, an AP-SRS) via SpatialRelationlnfoconfiguration. Upon successfully decoding the UL-related DCI with theSRI, the UE performs UL transmission (such as data transmission onPUSCH) with the UL TX beam associated with the SRI (step 1104).

In another example illustrated in FIG. 12 , a DL multi-beam operation1200 is shown. The embodiment of the DL multi-beam operation 1200illustrated in FIG. 12 is for illustration only. FIG. 12 does not limitthe scope of this disclosure to any particular implementation of the DLmulti-beam operation 1200.

In the example illustrated in FIG. 12 , where a UE is configured formeasuring/receiving aperiodic CSI-RS (AP-CSI-RS) and reporting aperiodicCSI (AP CSI), a DL multi-beam operation 1200 starts with the gNB/NWsignaling to a UE an aperiodic CSI-RS (AP-CSI-RS) trigger or indication(step 1201). This trigger or indication can be included in a DCI (eitherUL-related or DL-related, either separately or jointly signaled with anaperiodic CSI request/trigger) and indicate transmission of AP-CSI-RS ina same (zero time offset) or later slot/sub-frame (>0 time offset). Uponreceiving the AP-CSI-RS transmitted by the gNB/NW (step 1202), the UEmeasures the AP-CSI-RS and, in turn, calculates and reports a “beammetric” (included in the CSI, indicating quality of a particular TX beamhypothesis) (step 1203). Examples of such beam reporting (supported inNR) are CSI-RS resource indicator (CRI) or SSB resource indicator(SSB-RI) coupled with its associated L1-RSRP and/or L1-SINR. Uponreceiving the beam report from the UE, the NW/gNB can use the beamreport to select a DL TX beam for the UE and indicate the DL TX beamselection (step 1204) using the TCI field in the DL-related DCI (thatcarries the DL assignment, such as DCI format 1_1 in NR). The TCI statecorresponds to a reference RS (in this case, an AP-CSI-RS)defined/configured via the TCI state definition (higher-layer/RRCconfigured, from which a subset is activated via MAC CE for theDCI-based selection). Upon successfully decoding the DL-related DCI withthe TCI field, the UE performs DL reception (such as data transmissionon PDSCH) with the DL TX beam associated with the TCI field (step 1205).In this example embodiment, only one DL TX beam is indicated to the UE.

To facilitate fast beam management, one requirement is to streamline thefoundational components (building blocks) for beam management. Onefunctionality of beam management is beam selection which comprisesfunctions such as beam measurement (including training), reporting (forDL beam management, reporting via UL control channel(s)), and indication(for DL and UL beam management, indication via DL control channel(s)).Once the building blocks are streamlined [step 1], additional advancedfeatures to facilitate faster beam management can be added [step 2].

In U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/949,246 filed on Oct. 21, 2020,the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein, a “slimmode” with streamlined designs of such foundational components [step 1]is proposed for fast beam management. The slim-mode design, due to itscompact nature, can facilitate faster update/reconfiguration vialower-layer control signaling. In other words, L1 control signaling willbe the primary signaling mechanism and higher-layer (such as MAC CE orRRC) is used only when necessary. Here, L1 control signaling includesthe use of UE-group DCI as well as dedicated (UE-specific) DCI.

The aforementioned additional advanced features can include extensionsof beam management (multi-beam operation) from intra-cell to inter-cellmobility. With such mechanism, seamless access/mobility forRRC_CONNECTED UEs—as if cell boundaries were not observed unless a UE isin initial access or initial-access-like condition—can be achieved.Another advanced feature includes mechanisms to minimize beam failure(BF) or radio link failure (RLF) such as low-overhead faster beamswitching/selection and UE-initiated/event-triggered beam management.With such preventive mechanisms in place, beam failure recovery (BFR)will be less likely used.

In NR beam management (BM), the beam indication/reporting is associatedwith a resource ID (CRI indicating CSI-RS, SSBRI indicating SSB). Thedrawback of such indication/reporting is the need for more frequentupdate of beam indication/reporting for high speed scenarios. When theUE moves at a predictable speed and/or trajectory relative to the gNB orthe NW, the beam refinement and switching over a longer period of timecan be to facilitated with only one DL beam indication signaling for DL(likewise, with only one UL beam indication signaling for UL). Forinstance, as proposed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/094,580filed on May 20, 2021, for DL (likewise for UL) beam indication, the TCIfield indicates the selected TCI state wherein one TCI state isassociated with a sequence of source/reference RS (port) indicesrepresenting a sequence of DL (likewise for UL) TX beams the UE assumesover a period of time. In one example, the number of reference RSindices in the sequence along with the length of the time period(possibly including periodicity and/or offset) can be configured viahigher-layer signaling (RRC and/or MAC CE). This configuration can beseparate or together with the TCI state definition. When receiving thisindication, the UE assumes that the DL (likewise for UL) TX beamswitches (or sweeps) over the period of time according to the configuredsequence.

In this disclosure, more details about the components (TCI statedefinition, QCL assumptions, etc.), beam (reference signal) measurement,beam indication and reporting as well as the corresponding signalingmechanisms are proposed.

In the rest of the disclosure, the term “beam”, can be associated aspatial transmission of a resource signal (RS) from a “port”, “antennaport”, or “virtual antenna/port”.

If mobility profile (e.g., speed) of a UE is predictable (e.g., based onSRS at gNB or based on CSI-RS at UE), then instead of indicating asingle TX beam (e.g., via DL beam indication) or reporting a single beam(via beam report), the beam indication or beam reporting can refer to aset of TX beam.

In one embodiment (1), the DL BM procedures include mechanism tofacilitate indicating and/or reporting a set of DL TX beams via a singlebeam indication and/or beam reporting. The DL BM procedures include thefollowing three essential steps: (S1) beam measurement, (S2) beamreporting, and (S3) beam indication.

For beam measurement (S1), a set of K reference RSs can be configuredfor measurement via higher-layer (such as RRC) signaling to a UE. Ifbeam correspondence does not hold, the K reference RSs can be NZPCSI-RS, SSB, DL DMRS, or any combination of those. For example, this setcan be composed of NZP CSI-RS and SSB. Or it can be composed of NZPCSI-RS only. Or it can be composed of SSB only. If beam correspondenceholds, the K reference RSs can be NZP CSI-RS, SSB, DL DMRS, SRS, ULDMRS, or any combination of those. Each reference RS can be associatedwith a resource ID of the particular type of RS. Optionally, eachreference RS can also be associated with an entity ID of a particulartype of radio resource (RR) entity, which the reference RS belongs to(or transmitted from). A few examples of the RR entity include at leastone or a combination of cell, transmit-receive point (TRP), antennapanel, resource set, and port.

In one example, a reference RS can be associated with a TX beam orspatial domain filter, which NW/gNB (for DL RS) or UE (for UL RS) usesto beamform/precode the reference RS before its transmission. The choiceof the TX beam or spatial domain filter is up to the NW/gNB (for DL RS)or UE (for US RS).

At least one of the following alternatives can be used for beamreporting (S2) and DL beam indication (S3).

In one alternative Alt 1.1, both beam reporting (S2) and DL beamindication (S3) correspond to a single DL TX beam (similar to NR BM).For beam reporting (S2), the UE is configured to use a subset or all ofthe configured K reference RSs to determine one beam report comprising abeam metric and/or a resource indicator. For beam indication (S3), theNR TCI-based mechanism can be reused. The TCI-based mechanismlinks/associates one of the K reference RSs to a particular TCI statefor a channel (or another/target RS). Such association can take form ofthe QCL TypeD, which represents a spatial relation or spatial domainfilter (or beam or precoder).

In one alternative Alt 1.2, beam reporting (S2) corresponds to a singleDL TX beam (similar to NR BM), and DL beam indication (S3) correspondsto a set of M>1 DL TX beams m=0,1,2, . . . , M−1. For beam reporting(S2), the procedures as in Alt 1.1 is used. For beam indication (S3),the NR 16 TCI-based mechanism can be reused to link/associate M out ofthe K reference RSs to a particular TCI state for a channel (oranother/target RS). Such association can take form of the QCL TypeD,which represents a spatial relation or spatial domain filter (or beam orprecoder).

In one alternative Alt 1.3, beam reporting (S2) corresponds to a set ofN>1 DL TX beams n=0,1,2, . . . , N−1, and DL beam indication (S3)corresponds to a single DL TX beam (similar to Rel. 15/16 BM). For beamindication (S3), the procedures as in Alt 1.1 is used. For beamreporting (S2), the UE is configured to use a subset or all of theconfigured K reference RSs to determine N beam reports, where each beamreport comprises a beam metric and/or a resource indicator.

In one alternative Alt 1.4, beam reporting (S2) corresponds to a set ofN>1 DL TX beams n=0,1,2, . . . , N−1, and DL beam indication (S3)corresponds to a set of M>1 DL TX beams m=0,1,2, . . . , M−1. For beamreporting (S2), the UE is configured to use a subset or all of theconfigured K reference RS s to determine N beam reports, where each beamreport comprises a beam metric and/or a resource indicator. For beamindication (S3), the NR TCI-based mechanism can be reused tolink/associate M out of the K reference RSs to a particular TCI statefor a channel (or another/target RS). Such association can take form ofthe QCL TypeD, which represents a spatial relation or spatial domainfilter (or beam or precoder).

In one example, the beam metric is a L1-RSRP which indicates power levelof a reference RS. In another example, the beam metric is a L1-SINRwhich indicates a ratio of signal power and (noise plus) interferencepower, where the signal power is determined using a reference RS and theinterference power is determined using a ZP CSI-RS resource and/or NZPCSI-RS resource configured to the UE for interference measurement. Inone example, the resource indicator is a CRI indicating a CSI-RSresource. In another example, the resource indicator is a SSBRIindicating a SSB resource. In another example, the resource indicator isa SRI indicating a SRS resource. In one example, the resource indicatorindicates both a reference RS and an RR entity that the reference RSbelongs to or transmitted from (cf. for BM management based intra- orinter-cell mobility scenarios).

For DL beam indication, two relevant channels include PDSCH and PDCCH(and example of another/target RS include DL DMRS, CSI-RS, SSB, SRS, ULDMRS). Similar to NR, a set of TCI states can be configured viahigher-layer (RRC) signaling. Optionally, a set of TCI states can beconfigured via MAC CE. Optionally, a subset of the TCI states can beactivated or selected either via MAC CE or L1 control signaling (viaeither UE-group DCI where a set of UEs share a same TCI state subset, orUE-specific/dedicated DCI). This subset constitutes the TCI statesrepresented by the code points of the TCI field in the correspondingDCI. This update/activation can be performed in either one shot orincrementally. The TCI state indicated by the code point of the TCIfield is a reference to the TX beam or the TX spatial filter associatedwith a reference RS. For DL, given such a reference, the UE can furtherderive the RX beam or RX spatial filter. The DCI that includes the TCIfield (which can be either DL-related DCI or UL-related DCI) performsthe function of the so-called “beam indication”.

FIG. 13 illustrates beam reporting and beam indication according to Alt1.1 through Alt 1.4, wherein for Alt 1.1 and Alt 1.3, a TCI stateincludes a TCI state ID and a QCL-Info parameter indicating a single DLTX beam. For Alt 1.2 and Alt 1.4, three alternatives are provided forM>1 DL TX beam indication.

-   -   In one alternative Alt S3-A: a TCI state includes a TCI state ID        and a set of QCL-Info parameters for M DL TX beams.    -   In one alternative Alt S3-B: a set of TCI states where each TCI        state includes a TCI state ID and a QCL-Info parameter        indicating a single DL TX beam.    -   In one alternative Alt S3-C: a set of P TCI states where each        TCI state includes a TCI state ID and a set of QCL-Info        parameters for Q DL TX beams, and P×Q=M.

A QCL-Info parameter includes a resource ID, and optionally, an entityID (e.g., cell ID) of a reference RS (from K reference RSs), and aQCL-Type, e.g., QCL TypeD.

In one example, N=M, where N is fixed or configured via higher layer(RRC) or reported by the UE. In another example, N≠M, where at least oneof the following examples is used for N and M.

-   -   In one example 1-1, both N and M are fixed.    -   In one example 1-2, both N and M are configured via higher layer        (RRC).    -   In one example 1-3, both N and M are reported by the UE.    -   In one example 1-4, N is fixed and M is configured via higher        layer (RRC).    -   In one example 1-5, N is fixed and M is reported by the UE.    -   In one example 1-6, N is configured via higher layer (RRC) and M        is fixed.    -   In one example 1-7, N is configured via higher layer (RRC) and M        is reported by the UE.    -   In one example 1-8, N is reported by the UE and M is fixed.    -   In one example 1-9, N is reported by the UE and M is configured        via higher layer (RRC).    -   In one example 1-10, M is fixed and N is configured via higher        layer (RRC).    -   In one example 1-11, M is fixed and N is reported by the UE.    -   In one example 1-12, M is configured via higher layer (RRC) and        N is fixed.    -   In one example 1-13, M is configured via higher layer (RRC) and        N is reported by the UE.    -   In one example 1-14, M is reported by the UE and N is fixed.    -   In one example 1-15, M is reported by the UE and N is configured        via higher layer (RRC).

A few sub-embodiments of this embodiment, for the beam reporting (S2)over a longer period of time are as follows.

In one sub-embodiment (1.1.1), a UE is configured with a beam reportingindicating a set of N DL TX beams (cf. Alt 1.3 and Alt 1.4) where thebeam reporting is performed in an aperiodic manner. In one example, thebeam reporting is triggered via DL-related DCI. In one example, the beamreporting is triggered via UL-related DCI. The beam reportingcorresponds to a burst of N beams n=0,1, . . . , N−1 such that over aperiod of time, the DL TX beam can change from n=0 to n=N−1 according toa pattern (sequence), which can be fixed or reported together with thebeam reporting or configured. In one example, the set of N DL TX beamscan represent a wider DL TX beam (e.g., N narrow beams can be associatedwith a wide beam) for control channel (PDCCH). For data channel (PDSCH),however, the DL TX beam will be one of the N DL TX beams. In oneexample, the DL TX beams for both control (PDCCH) and data (PDSCH) arethe same, which is one of the N DL TX beams.

In one sub-embodiment (1.1.2), a UE can initiate (or can be configuredto initiate, e.g., based on L1 events such as beam failure detection) abeam reporting indicating a set of N DL TX beams (cf. Alt 1-3 and Alt1.4) where the initiated beam reporting corresponds to an aperiodicreport. Some of details about UE-initiated beam report/indication can befound in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/946,915 filed on Feb. 11,2021. The beam reporting corresponds to a burst of N beams n=0,1, . . ., N−1 such that over a period of time, the DL TX beam can change fromn=0 to n=N−1 according to a pattern (sequence), which can be fixed orreported together with the beam reporting or configured. In one example,the set of N DL TX beams can represent a wider DL TX beam (e.g., Nnarrow beams can be associated with a wide beam) for control channel(PDCCH). For data channel (PDSCH), however, the DL TX beam will be oneof the N DL TX beams. In one example, the DL TX beams for both control(PDCCH) and data (PDSCH) are the same, which is one of the N DL TXbeams.

In one sub-embodiment (1.1.3), a UE is configured with a beam reportingindicating a set of N DL TX beams (cf. Alt 1.3 and Alt 1.4) where thebeam reporting is performed in a semi-persistent manner. In one example,the semi-persistent beam reporting is activated or deactivated based ona MAC CE based activation or deactivation command, respectively. Whenactivated, the UE reports a set of N DL TX beams in a periodic manner.The UE stops periodic beam reporting after receiving a deactivationcommand. With such a beam reporting mechanism, the beam reporting can beperformed sparingly. The gNB can infer (interpolate) DL TX beams betweentwo such beam reporting instances via, e.g., an interpolated pattern,which can be fixed, reported together with the beam reporting orconfigured. In one example, the set of N DL TX beams can represent awider DL TX beam (e.g., N narrow beams can be associated with a widebeam) for control channel (PDCCH). For data channel (PDSCH), however,the DL TX beam will be one of the N DL TX beams. In one example, the DLTX beams for both control (PDCCH) and data (PDSCH) are the same, whichis one of the N DL TX beams.

A few sub-embodiments of this embodiment, for the beam indication over alonger period of time are as follows.

FIG. 14 illustrates example beam indication mechanisms 1400. Theembodiment of the example beam indication mechanisms 1400 illustrated inFIG. 14 is for illustration only. FIG. 14 does not limit the scope ofthis disclosure to any particular implementation of the example beamindication mechanisms 1400.

In one sub-embodiment (1.2.1), a UE is configured with a beam indicationindicating a set of M DL TX beams (cf. Alt 1-2 and Alt 1.4) where thebeam indication is performed in an aperiodic manner. In one example, thebeam indication is performed via a TCI state included as a code-point inDL-related DCI. In one example, the beam indication is performed via aTCI state included as a code-point in UL-related DCI. In one example,the indicated code-point is selected from a set of TCI states configuredvia higher layer (RRC). In another example, the indicated code-point isselected from a set of TCI states configured via MAC CE activationcommand, where the set of TCI states can be selected from a larger setof TCI states configured via higher layer (RRC). In this case, the beamindication corresponds to a burst of M beams m=0,1, . . . , M−1 suchthat over a period of time, the DL TX beam can change from m=0 to m=M−1according to a pattern (sequence), which can be fixed, reported togetherwith the beam reporting or configured. In one example, the set of M DLTX beams can represent a wider DL TX beam for control channel (PDCCH).For data channel (PDSCH), however, the DL TX beam will be one of the MDL TX beams. In one example, the DL TX beams for both control (PDCCH)and data (PDSCH) are the same, which is one of the M DL TX beams. Anillustration of the DL beam indication according to this embodiment isshown in FIG. 14 .

In one sub-embodiment (1.2.2), a UE can initiate (or can be configuredto initiate, e.g., based on L1 events such as beam failure detection) abeam indication mechanism indicating a set of M DL TX beams (cf. Alt 1.2and Alt 1.4) where the initiated beam indication corresponds to anaperiodic indication. Some of details about UE-initiated beamreport/indication can be found in U.S. patent application Ser. No.16/946,915 filed on Feb. 11, 2021. The beam indication corresponds to aburst of M beams m=0,1, . . . , M−1 such that over a period of time, theDL TX beam can change from m=0 to m=M−1 according to a pattern(sequence), which can be fixed, reported together with the beamreporting or configured. In one example, the set of M DL TX beams canrepresent a wider DL TX beam for control channel (PDCCH). For datachannel (PDSCH), however, the DL TX beam will be one of the M DL TXbeams. In one example, the DL TX beams for both control (PDCCH) and data(PDSCH) are the same, which is one of the M DL TX beams. An illustrationof the DL beam indication according to this embodiment is shown in FIG.14 .

In one sub-embodiment (1.2.3), a UE is configured with a beam indicationindicating a set of M DL TX beams (cf. Alt 1.2 and Alt 1.4) where thebeam indication is performed in a semi-persistent manner. In oneexample, the semi-persistent beam indication is activated or deactivatedbased on a MAC CE based activation or deactivation command,respectively. When activated, the UE is indicated with a set of M DL TXbeams in a periodic manner. The beam indication is deactivated based ona deactivation command. With such a beam indication mechanism, the beamindication can be performed sparingly. The UE can infer (interpolate) DLTX beams between two such beam indication instances via, e.g., aninterpolated pattern, which can be fixed, reported together with thebeam reporting or configured. In one example, the set of M DL TX beamscan represent a wider DL TX beam for control channel (PDCCH). For datachannel (PDSCH), however, the DL TX beam will be one of the M DL TXbeams. In one example, the DL TX beams for both control (PDCCH) and data(PDSCH) are the same, which is one of the M DL TX beams. An illustrationof the DL beam indication according to this embodiment is shown in FIG.14 .

FIG. 15 illustrates example beam indication mechanisms 1500. Theembodiment of the example beam indication mechanisms 1500 illustrated inFIG. 15 is for illustration only. FIG. 15 does not limit the scope ofthis disclosure to any particular implementation of the example beamindication mechanisms 1500.

In one sub-embodiment (1.2.4), a UE is configured with a beam indicationindicating a set of M DL TX beams, e.g., as in sub-embodiments 1.2.1,1.2.2, and 1.2.3 (e.g., via a TCI state mechanism), wherein the beamindication is a function of the (time) slot/subframe

-   -   In one example 1.2.4.1, DL TX beam #0 is indicated for a DL        slot/subframe x, DL TX beam #1 is indicated for a DL        slot/subframe x+1, DL TX beam #2 is indicated for a DL        slot/subframe x+2, and so on.    -   In one example 1.2.4.2, DL TX beam #0 is indicated for DL        slots/subframes x, x+1, . . . , x+y−1, DL TX beam #1 is        indicated for DL slots/subframes x+y, x+y+1, . . . ,x+2y−1, DL        TX beam #2 is indicated for a DL slots/subframes x+2y, x+2y+1, .        . . ,x+3y−1, and so on.

Here, x is a reference slot/subframe and y is a slot/subframe offset forDL beam switching. In one example, x can be fixed. Alternatively, x canbe a function of UE speed. Alternatively, x can be configured.Alternatively, x can be reported by the UE. In another example, y can befixed. Alternatively, y can be a function of UE speed. Alternatively, ycan be configured. Alternatively, y can be reported by the UE. Anillustration of the DL TX beams for the two examples is shown in FIG. 15.

In one example, the NR mechanism for DL slot indication can be used (orextended) to indicate M slots or M groups of DL slots for which M DL TXbeams are indicated via the TCI indication. For example, the parameterTDD-UL-DL-ConfigDedicated included in the information element (IE)TDD-UL-DL-Config can be used to indicate/configure the DL slot indices.In particular, the parameter slotlndex (bold highlighted below) providedvia TDD-UL-DL-ConfigDedicated can be used for this purpose, whereslotlndex identifies a slot within a dl-UL-TransmissionPeriodicity(given in tdd-UL-DL-configurationCommon).

TDD-UL-DL-ConfigDedicated ::= SEQUENCE {slotSpecificConfigurationsToAddModList SEQUENCE (SIZE (1..maxNrofSlots))OF TDD-UL-DL-SlotConfig OPTIONAL, -- Need NslotSpecificConfigurationsToreleaseList SEQUENCE (SIZE(1..maxNrofSlots)) OF TDD-UL-DL-SlotIndex OPTIONAL, -- Need N ... }TDD-UL-DL-SlotConfig ::= SEQUENCE { slotIndex TDD-UL-DL-SlotIndex,symbols CHOICE { allDownlink NULL, allUplink NULL, explicit SEQUENCE {nrofDownlinkSymbols INTEGER (1..maxNrofSymbols−1) OPTIONAL, -- Need SnrofUplinkSymbols INTEGER (1..maxNrofSymbols−1) OPTIONAL -- Need S } } }TDD-UL-DL-SlotIndex ::= INTEGER (0..maxNrofSlots−1)

For instance, if slot indexing is according to Ex 1.2.4.1 (explainedabove), then slotlndex=x+m for m=0,1, . . . , M−1, where x is areference slot/subframe. If slot indexing is according to Ex 1.2.4.2(explained above), then slotIndex=x+m×y for m=0,1, . . . , M−1, where xis a reference slot/subframe and y is a slot/subframe offset for DL beamswitching.

In one embodiment (2), the UL BM procedures include mechanism tofacilitate indicating and/or reporting a set of UL TX beams via a singlebeam indication and/or beam reporting. Similar to DL (cf. embodiment 1),the UL BM procedures include the following three essential steps: (S1)beam measurement, (S2) beam reporting, and (S3) beam indication.

For beam measurement (S1), a set of K reference RSs can be configuredfor measurement via higher-layer (such as RRC) signaling to a UE. Ifbeam correspondence does not hold, the K reference RSs can be SRS, ULDMRS, or any combination of those. For example, this set can be composedof SRS only. Or it can be composed of UL DMRS only. Or it can becomposed of a combination of SRS and UL DMRS. If beam correspondenceholds, the K reference RSs can be NZP CSI-RS, SSB, DL DMRS, SRS, ULDMRS, or any combination of those. Each reference RS can be associatedwith a resource ID of the particular type of RS. Optionally, eachreference RS can also associated with an entity ID of a particular typeof radio resource (RR) entity, which the reference RS belongs to (ortransmitted from). A few examples of the RR entity include at least oneor a combination of UL entities such as antenna panel, resource set, andport.

In one example, a reference RS can be associated with a TX beam orspatial domain filter, which NW/gNB (for DL RS) or UE (for UL RS) usesto beamform/precode the reference RS before its transmission. The choiceof the TX beam or spatial domain filter is up to the NW/gNB (for DL RS)or UE (for US RS).

At least one of the following alternatives can be used for beamreporting (S2) and UL beam indication (S3).

In one alternative Alt 2.1, both beam reporting (S2) and UL beamindication (S3) correspond to a single UL TX beam (similar to NR BM).For beam reporting (S2), the UE is configured to use a subset or all ofthe configured K reference RSs to determine one beam report comprising abeam metric and/or a resource indicator. For UL beam indication (S3),the NR TCI-based mechanism can be reused. The TCI-based mechanismlinks/associates one of the K reference RSs to a particular TCI statefor a channel (or another/target RS). Such association can take form ofthe QCL TypeD, which represents a spatial relation or spatial domainfilter (or beam or precoder).

In one alternative Alt 2.2, beam reporting (S2) corresponds to a singleUL TX beam (similar to Rel. 15/16 BM), and UL beam indication (S3)corresponds to a set of M>1 UL TX beams m=0,1,2, . . . , M−1. For beamreporting (S2), the procedures as in Alt 2.1 is used. For beamindication (S3), the NR TCI-based mechanism can be reused tolink/associate M out of the K reference RSs to a particular TCI statefor a channel (or another/target RS). Such association can take form ofthe QCL TypeD, which represents a spatial relation or spatial domainfilter (or beam or precoder).

In one alternative Alt 2.3, beam reporting (S2) corresponds to a set ofN>1 UL TX beams n=0,1,2, . . . , N−1, and UL beam indication (S3)corresponds to a single UL TX beam (similar to NR BM). For beamindication (S3), the procedures as in Alt 2.1 is used. For beamreporting (S2), the UE is configured to use a subset or all of theconfigured K reference RSs to determine N beam reports, where each beamreport comprises a beam metric and/or a resource indicator.

In one alternative Alt 2.4, beam reporting (S2) corresponds to a set ofN>1 UL TX beams n=0,1,2, . . . , N−1, and UL beam indication (S3)corresponds to a set of M>1 UL TX beams m=0,1,2, . . . , M−1. For beamreporting (S2), the UE is configured to use a subset or all of theconfigured K reference RS s to determine N beam reports, where each beamreport comprises a beam metric and/or a resource indicator. For beamindication (S3), the NR TCI-based mechanism can be reused tolink/associate M out of the K reference RSs to a particular TCI statefor a channel (or another/target RS). Such association can take form ofthe QCL TypeD, which represents a spatial relation or spatial domainfilter (or beam or precoder).

In one example, the beam metric is a L1-RSRP which indicates power levelof a reference RS. In another example, the beam metric is a L1-SINRwhich indicates a ratio of signal power and (noise plus) interferencepower, where the signal power is determined using a reference RS and theinterference power is determined using a ZP CSI-RS resource and/or NZPCSI-RS resource configured to the UE for interference measurement. Inone example, the resource indicator is a CRI indicating a CSI-RSresource. In another example, the resource indicator is a SSBRIindicating a SSB resource. In another example, the resource indicator isa SRI indicating a SRS resource. In one example, the resource indicatorindicates both a reference RS and an RR entity that the reference RSbelongs to or transmitted from (cf. for BM management based intra- orinter-cell mobility scenarios).

For UL beam indication, three relevant channels include PRACH, PUSCH,and PUCCH (and example of another/target RS include UL DMRS, CSI-RS,SSB, SRS, UL DMRS). Similar to NR, a set of TCI states can be configuredvia higher-layer (RRC) signaling. Optionally, a set of TCI states can beconfigured via MAC CE. Optionally, a subset of the TCI states can beactivated or selected either via MAC CE or L1 control signaling (viaeither UE-group DCI where a set of UEs share a same TCI state subset, orUE-specific/dedicated DCI). This subset constitutes the TCI statesrepresented by the code points of the TCI field in the correspondingDCI. This update/activation can be performed in either one shot orincrementally. The TCI state indicated by the code point of the TCIfield is a reference to the TX beam or the TX spatial filter associatedwith a reference RS. For UL, given such a reference, the UE can furtherderive the RX beam or RX spatial filter. The DCI that includes the TCIfield (which can be either DL-related DCI or UL-related DCI) performsthe function of the so-called “beam indication”.

FIG. 13 illustrates beam reporting and beam indication according to Alt2.1 through Alt 2.4, wherein for Alt 2.1 and Alt 2.3, a TCI stateincludes a TCI state ID and a QCL-Info parameter indicating a single ULTX beam. For Alt 2.2 and Alt 2.4, three alternatives are provided forM>1 UL TX beam indication.

-   -   Alt S3-A: a TCI state includes a TCI state ID and a set of        QCL-Info parameters for M UL TX beams.    -   Alt S3-B: a set of TCI states where each TCI state includes a        TCI state ID and a QCL-Info parameter indicating a single UL TX        beam.    -   Alt S3-C: a set of P TCI states where each TCI state includes a        TCI state ID and a set of QCL-Info parameters for Q UL TX beams,        and P×Q=M.

A QCL-Info parameter includes a resource ID, and optionally, an entityID (e.g., cell ID) of a reference RS (from K reference RSs), and aQCL-Type, e.g., QCL TypeD.

In one example, N=M, where N is fixed or configured via higher layer(RRC) or reported by the UE. In another example, N≠M, where at least ofexample 1-1 through 1-15 is used for N and M.

A few sub-embodiments of this embodiment, for the beam reporting (S2)over a longer period of time are as follows.

In one sub-embodiment (2.1.1), a UE is configured with a beam reportingindicating a set of N UL TX beams (cf. Alt 1-3 and Alt 1.4) where thebeam reporting is performed in an aperiodic manner. In one example, thebeam reporting is triggered via DL-related DCI. In one example, the beamreporting is triggered via UL-related DCI. The beam reportingcorresponds to a burst of N beams n=0,1, . . . , N−1 such that over aperiod of time, the UL TX beam can change from n=0 to n=N−1 according toa pattern (sequence), which can be fixed or reported together with thebeam reporting or configured. In one example, the set of N UL TX beamscan represent a wider UL TX beam (e.g., N narrow beams can be associatedwith a wide beam) for control channel (PDCCH). For data channel (PDSCH),however, the UL TX beam will be one of the N UL TX beams. In oneexample, the UL TX beams for both control (PDCCH) and data (PDSCH) arethe same, which is one of the N UL TX beams.

In one sub-embodiment (2.1.2), a UE can initiate (or can be configuredto initiate, e.g., based on L1 events such as beam failure detection) abeam reporting indicating a set of N UL TX beams (cf. Alt 1-3 and Alt1.4) where the initiated beam reporting corresponds to an aperiodicreport. Some of details about UE-initiated beam report/indication can befound in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/946,915 filed on Feb. 11,2021. The beam reporting corresponds to a burst of N beams n=0,1, . . ., N−1 such that over a period of time, the UL TX beam can change fromn=0 to n=N−1 according to a pattern (sequence), which can be fixed orreported together with the beam reporting or configured. In one example,the set of N UL TX beams can represent a wider UL TX beam (e.g., Nnarrow beams can be associated with a wide beam) for control channel(PDCCH). For data channel (PDSCH), however, the UL TX beam will be oneof the N UL TX beams. In one example, the UL TX beams for both control(PDCCH) and data (PDSCH) are the same, which is one of the N UL TXbeams.

In one sub-embodiment (2.1.3), a UE is configured with a beam reportingindicating a set of N UL TX beams (cf. Alt 1-3 and Alt 1.4) where thebeam reporting is performed in a semi-persistent manner. In one example,the semi-persistent beam reporting is activated or deactivated based ona MAC CE based activation or deactivation command, respectively. Whenactivated, the UE reports a set of N UL TX beams in a periodic manner.The UE stops periodic beam reporting after receiving a deactivationcommand. With such a beam reporting mechanism, the beam reporting can beperformed sparingly. The gNB can infer (interpolate) UL TX beams betweentwo such beam reporting instances via, e.g., an interpolated pattern,which can be fixed, reported together with the beam reporting orconfigured. In one example, the set of N UL TX beams can represent awider UL TX beam (e.g., N narrow beams can be associated with a widebeam) for control channel (PDCCH). For data channel (PDSCH), however,the UL TX beam will be one of the N UL TX beams. In one example, the ULTX beams for both control (PDCCH) and data (PDSCH) are the same, whichis one of the N UL TX beams.

A few sub-embodiments of this embodiment, for the beam indication over alonger period of time are as follows.

In one sub-embodiment (2.2.1), a UE is configured with a beam indicationindicating a set of M UL TX beams (cf. Alt 1-2 and Alt 1.4) where thebeam indication is performed in an aperiodic manner. In one example, thebeam indication is performed via a TCI state included as a code-point inDL-related DCI. In one example, the beam indication is performed via aTCI state included as a code-point in UL-related DCI. In one example,the indicated code-point is selected from a set of TCI states configuredvia higher layer (RRC). In another example, the indicated code-point isselected from a set of TCI states configured via MAC CE activationcommand, where the set of TCI states can be selected from a larger setof TCI states configured via higher layer (RRC). In this case, the beamindication corresponds to a burst of M beams m=0,1, . . . , M−1 suchthat over a period of time, the UL TX beam can change from m=0 to m=M−1according to a pattern (sequence), which can be fixed, reported togetherwith the beam reporting or configured. In one example, the set of M ULTX beams can represent a wider UL TX beam for control channel (PDCCH).For data channel (PDSCH), however, the UL TX beam will be one of the MUL TX beams. In one example, the UL TX beams for both control (PDCCH)and data (PDSCH) are the same, which is one of the M UL TX beams. Anillustration of the UL beam indication according to this embodiment issimilar (identical to) that shown for DL beam indication in FIG. 14 .

In one sub-embodiment (2.2.2), a UE can initiate (or can be configuredto initiate, e.g., based on L1 events such as beam failure detection) abeam indication mechanism indicating a set of M UL TX beams (cf. Alt 1-2and Alt 1.4) where the initiated beam indication corresponds to anaperiodic indication. Some of details about UE-initiated beamreport/indication can be found in U.S. patent application Ser. No.16/946,915 filed on Feb. 11, 2021. The beam indication corresponds to aburst of M beams m=0,1, . . . , M−1 such that over a period of time, theUL TX beam can change from m=0 to m=M−1 according to a pattern(sequence), which can be fixed, reported together with the beamreporting or configured. In one example, the set of M UL TX beams canrepresent a wider UL TX beam for control channel (PDCCH). For datachannel (PDSCH), however, the UL TX beam will be one of the M UL TXbeams. In one example, the UL TX beams for both control (PDCCH) and data(PDSCH) are the same, which is one of the M UL TX beams. An illustrationof the UL beam indication according to this embodiment is similar(identical to) that shown for DL beam indication is shown in FIG. 14 .

In one sub-embodiment (2.2.3), a UE is configured with a beam indicationindicating a set of M UL TX beams (cf. Alt 1-2 and Alt 1.4) where thebeam indication is performed in a semi-persistent manner. In oneexample, the semi-persistent beam indication is activated or deactivatedbased on a MAC CE based activation or deactivation command,respectively. When activated, the UE is indicated with a set of M UL TXbeams in a periodic manner. The beam indication is deactivated based ona deactivation command. With such a beam indication mechanism, the beamindication can be performed sparingly. The UE can infer (interpolate) ULTX beams between two such beam indication instances via, e.g., aninterpolated pattern, which can be fixed, reported together with thebeam reporting or configured. In one example, the set of M UL TX beamscan represent a wider UL TX beam for control channel (PDCCH). For datachannel (PDSCH), however, the UL TX beam will be one of the M UL TXbeams. In one example, the UL TX beams for both control (PDCCH) and data(PDSCH) are the same, which is one of the M UL TX beams. An illustrationof the UL beam indication according to this embodiment is similar(identical to) that shown for DL beam indication is shown in FIG. 14 .

In one sub-embodiment (2.2.4), a UE is configured with a beam indicationindicating a set of M UL TX beams, e.g., as in sub-embodiments 2.2.1,2.2.2, and 2.2.3 (e.g., via a TCI state mechanism), wherein the beamindication is a function of the (time) slot/subframe In one example2.2.4.1, UL TX beam #0 is indicated for a UL slot/subframe x, UL TX beam#1 is indicated for a UL slot/subframe x+1, UL TX beam #2 is indicatedfor a UL slot/subframe x+2, and so on.

In one example 2.2.4.2, UL TX beam #0 is indicated for ULslots/subframes x, x+1, . . . ,x+y−1, UL TX beam #1 is indicated for ULslots/subframes x+y, x+y+1, . . . ,x+2y−1, UL TX beam #2 is indicatedfor a UL slots/subframes x+2y, x+2y+1, . . . ,x+3y−1, and so on.

Here, x is a reference slot/subframe and y is a slot/subframe offset forUL beam switching. In one example, x can be fixed. Alternatively, x canbe a function of UE speed. Alternatively, x can be configured.Alternatively, x can be reported by the UE. In another example, y can befixed. Alternatively, y can be a function of UE speed. Alternatively, ycan be configured. Alternatively, y can be reported by the UE. Anillustration of the UL TX beams for the two examples similar (identicalto) that shown for DL beam indication is shown in FIG. 15 .

In one example, the NR mechanism for UL slot indication can be used (orextended) to indicate M slots or M groups of UL slots for which M UL TXbeams are indicated via the TCI indication. For example, the parameterTDD-UL-DL-ConfigDedicated included in the information element (IE)TDD-UL-DL-Config can be used to indicate/configure the UL slot indices.In particular, the parameter slotlndex (bold highlighted below) providedvia TDD-UL-DL-ConfigDedicated can be used for this purpose, whereslotlndex identifies a slot within a dl-UL-TransmissionPeriodicity(given in tdd-UL-DL-configurationCommon).

TDD-UL-DL-ConfigDedicated ::= SEQUENCE {slotSpecificConfigurationsToAddModList SEQUENCE (SIZE (1..maxNrofSlots))OF TDD-UL-DL-SlotConfig OPTIONAL, -- Need NslotSpecificConfigurationsToreleaseList SEQUENCE (SIZE(1..maxNrofSlots)) OF TDD-UL-DL-SlotIndex OPTIONAL, -- Need N ... }TDD-UL-DL-SlotConfig ::= SEQUENCE { slotIndex TDD-UL-DL-SlotIndex,symbols CHOICE { allDownlink NULL, allUplink NULL, explicit SEQUENCE {nrofDownlinkSymbols INTEGER (1..maxNrofSymbols−1) OPTIONAL, -- Need SnrofUplinkSymbols INTEGER (1..maxNrofSymbols−1) OPTIONAL -- Need S } } }TDD-UL-DL-SlotIndex ::= INTEGER (0..maxNrofSlots−1)

For instance, if slot indexing is according to Ex 2.2.4.1 (explainedabove), then slotlndex=x+m for m=0,1, . . . , M−1, where x is areference slot/subframe. If slot indexing is according to Ex 2.2.4.2(explained above), then slotIndex=x+m×y for m=0,1, . . . , M−1, where xis a reference slot/subframe and y is a slot/subframe offset for DL beamswitching.

In some embodiments/alternatives/examples of this disclosure, a DL or ULslot can be replaced with a DL or UL subframe, respectively, or anyother functionally equivalent entity in DL or UL, respectively, withoutchanging the scope of the embodiments/alternatives/examples.

FIG. 16 illustrates a flow chart of a method 1600 for operating a userequipment (UE), as may be performed by a UE such as UE 116, according toembodiments of the present disclosure. The embodiment of the method 1600illustrated in FIG. 16 is for illustration only. FIG. 16 does not limitthe scope of this disclosure to any particular implementation.

As illustrated in FIG. 16 , the method 1600 begins at step 1602. In step1602, the UE (e.g., 111-116 as illustrated in FIG. 1 ) receivesconfiguration information on a set of transmission configurationindicator (TCI) states.

In step 1604, the UE receives a TCI state indication associated withdownlink (DL) transmissions in a plurality of downlink (DL) time slots.

In step 1606, the UE decodes the TCI state information.

In step 1608, the UE applies the TCI state indication to a reception ofthe DL transmissions in the plurality of DL time slots.

In one embodiment, each TCI state in the set of TCI states refers to aplurality of source reference signals (RSs) with a corresponding quasico-location (QCL), the plurality of the source RSs are in one-to-oneassociation with the DL transmissions in the plurality of the DL timeslots, and the TCI state indication indicates one of the TCI states inthe set of TCI states.

In one embodiment, each TCI state in the set of TCI states refers to asource reference signal (RS) with a corresponding quasi co-location(QCL), and the TCI state indication indicates a plurality of the TCIstates from the set of TCI states that are in one-to-one associationwith the DL transmissions in the plurality of the DL time slots.

In one embodiment, the UE is further configured to receive aninformation about indices of the plurality of DL time slots.

In one embodiment, the UE receives a configuration to measure K sourceRSs and report a beam report, measures the K source RSs, determines thebeam report, wherein the beam report includes an indicator thatindicates a plurality of source RSs from the K source RSs, and transmitsthe determined beam report.

In one embodiment, the UE receives a value of a number of the TCI statescomprising the plurality of TCI states from the set of TCI states.

In one embodiment, the UE receives a value of a number of time slotscomprising the plurality of the DL time slots.

FIG. 17 illustrates a flow chart of another method 1700, as may beperformed by a base station (BS) such as BS 102, according toembodiments of the present disclosure. The embodiment of the method 1700illustrated in FIG. 17 is for illustration only. FIG. 17 does not limitthe scope of this disclosure to any particular implementation.

As illustrated in FIG. 17 , the method 1700 begins at step 1702. In step1702, the BS (e.g., 101-103 as illustrated in FIG. 1 ) generatesconfiguration information on a set of transmission configurationindicator (TCI) states.

In step 1704, the BS generates a TCI state indication associated withdownlink (DL) transmissions in a plurality of downlink (DL) time slots.

In step 1706, the BS transmits the configuration information.

In step 1708, the BS transmits the TCI state indication.

In one embodiment, each TCI state in the set of TCI states refers to aplurality of source reference signals (RSs) with a corresponding quasico-location (QCL), the plurality of the source RSs are in one-to-oneassociation with the DL transmissions in the plurality of the DL timeslots, and the TCI state indication indicates one of the TCI states inthe set of TCI states.

In one embodiment, each of the TCI states in the set of TCI statesrefers to a source reference signal (RS) with a corresponding quasico-location (QCL), and the TCI state indication indicates a plurality ofthe TCI states from the set of TCI states that are in one-to-oneassociation with the DL transmissions in the plurality of the DL timeslots.

In one embodiment, the BS transmits an information about indices of theplurality of DL time slots.

In one embodiment, the BS transmits a configuration for K source RSs anda beam report, and receives the beam report, wherein the beam reportincludes an indicator that indicates a plurality of source RSs from theK source RSs.

In one embodiment, the BS transmits a value of a number of the TCIstates comprising the plurality of the TCI states from the set of TCIstates.

In one embodiment, the BS transmits a value of a number of time slotscomprising the plurality of the DL time slots.

Although the present disclosure has been described with an exemplaryembodiment, various changes and modifications may be suggested to oneskilled in the art. It is intended that the present disclosure encompasssuch changes and modifications as fall within the scope of the appendedclaims. None of the description in this application should be read asimplying that any particular element, step, or function is an essentialelement that must be included in the claims scope. The scope of patentedsubject matter is defined by the claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A user equipment (UE) comprising: a transceiverconfigured to: receive configuration information on a set oftransmission configuration indicator (TCI) states; and receive, based onthe configuration information, a TCI state indication, wherein the TCIstate indication indicates M>1 beams; and a processor operably coupledto the transceiver, the processor configured to: decode the TCI stateindication and identify the M beams; and apply one of the M beams for areception of a downlink (DL) signal in a DL time slot.
 2. The UE ofclaim 1, wherein: the TCI state indication indicates M>1 TCI states,each of the M TCI states corresponds to one of the M beams, each TCIstate provides a source reference signal (RS) and an associatedquasi-co-location (QCL) type, and the associated QCL type corresponds totype D indicating a beam that is used to transmit or receive the sourceRS.
 3. The UE of claim 1, wherein: the TCI state indication indicatesP≥1 TCI states, each TCI state provides Q>1 source reference signals(RSs) and M=PQ, each TCI state provides a source RS and an associatedquasi-co-location (QCL) type, and the associated QCL type corresponds totype D indicating a beam that is used to transmit or receive the sourceRS.
 4. The UE of claim 1, wherein: the TCI state indication indicatesN>1 uplink (UL) beams for an UL transmission, and the processor isconfigured to: identify N UL beams, and apply one of the N UL beams forthe UL transmission in an UL time slot.
 5. The UE of claim 4, wherein:the TCI state indication indicates M>1 UL TCI states, each UL TCI stateprovides a source reference signal (RS) and an associated spatialrelation information, and the associated spatial relation informationcorresponds to an UL beam that is used to transmit or receive the sourceRS.
 6. The UE of claim 4, wherein: the TCI state indication indicatesR≥1 UL TCI states, each UL TCI state provides S>1 source referencesignals (RSs) and N=RS each UL TCI state provides a source RS and anassociated spatial relation information, and the associated spatialrelation information corresponds to an UL beam that is used to transmitor receive the source RS.
 7. The UE of claim 1, wherein the processor isconfigured to apply one of the M beams for a transmission of an uplink(UL) signal in a UL time slot.
 8. The UE of claim 1, wherein the TCIstate indication is via media access control-control element (MAC CE) ordownlink control information (DCI).
 9. A base station (BS) comprising: aprocessor; and a transceiver operably coupled to the processor, thetransceiver configured to: transmit configuration information on a setof transmission configuration indicator (TCI) states; transmit, based onthe configuration information, a TCI state indication, wherein the TCIstate indication indicates M>1 beams; and transmit a downlink (DL)signal in a DL time slot for reception by one of the M beams.
 10. The BSof claim 9, wherein: the TCI state indication indicates M>1 TCI states,each of the M TCI states corresponds to one of the M beams, each TCIstate provides a source reference signal (RS) and an associatedquasi-co-location (QCL) type, and the associated QCL type corresponds totype D indicating a beam that is used to transmit or receive the sourceRS.
 11. The BS of claim 9, wherein: the TCI state indication indicatesP≥1 TCI states, each TCI state provides Q>1 source reference signals(RSs) and M=PQ, each TCI state provides a source RS and an associatedquasi-co-location (QCL) type, and the associated QCL type corresponds totype D indicating a beam that is used to transmit or receive the sourceRS.
 12. The BS of claim 9, wherein: the TCI state indication indicatesN>1 uplink (UL) beams for an UL transmission, and the transceiver isconfigured to receive an UL signal corresponding to one of the N ULbeams in an UL time slot.
 13. The BS of claim 12, wherein: the TCI stateindication indicates M>1 UL TCI states, each UL TCI state provides asource reference signal (RS) and an associated spatial relationinformation, and the associated spatial relation information correspondsto an UL beam that is used to transmit or receive the source RS.
 14. TheBS of claim 12, wherein: the TCI state indication indicates R≥1 UL TCIstates, each UL TCI state provides S>1 source reference signals (RSs)and N=RS each UL TCI state provides a source RS and an associatedspatial relation information, and the associated spatial relationinformation corresponds to an UL beam that is used to transmit orreceive the source RS.
 15. The BS of claim 9, wherein the transceiver isconfigured to receive an uplink (UL) signal corresponding to one of theM beams in a UL time slot.
 16. The BS of claim 9, wherein the TCI stateindication is via media access control-control element (MAC CE) ordownlink control information (DCI).
 17. A method for operating a userequipment (UE), the method comprising: receiving configurationinformation on a set of transmission configuration indicator (TCI)states; and receiving, based on the configuration information, a TCIstate indication, wherein the TCI state indication indicates M>1 beams;decoding the TCI state indication; identifying the M beams; and applyingone of the M beams for a reception of a downlink (DL) signal in a DLtime slot.
 18. The method of claim 17, wherein: the TCI state indicationindicates M>1 TCI states, each of the M TCI states corresponds to one ofthe M beams, each TCI state provides a source reference signal (RS) andan associated quasi-co-location (QCL) type, and the associated QCL typecorresponds to type D indicating a beam that is used to transmit orreceive the source RS.
 19. The method of claim 17, wherein: the TCIstate indication indicates P≥1 TCI states, each TCI state provides Q>1source reference signals (RSs) and M=PQ, each TCI state provides asource RS and an associated quasi-co-location (QCL) type, and theassociated QCL type corresponds to type D indicating a beam that is usedto transmit or receive the source RS.
 20. The method of claim 17,wherein: the TCI state indication indicates N>1 uplink (UL) beams for anUL transmission, and the method further comprises: identifying N ULbeams, and applying one of the N UL beams for the UL transmission in anUL time slot.